The first game in the series was published in 1985. It was originally developed and published by Japanese game developer Artdink for Japan, and was later published by Maxis for the United States. Artdink ported the A-Train III along with the editor to Windows 95, and published both titles as a package...
The first game in the series was published in 1985. It was originally developed and published by Japanese game developer Artdink for Japan, and was later published by Maxis for the United States. Artdink ported the A-Train III along with the editor to Windows 95, and published both titles as a package as the 3rd ARTDINK BEST CHOICE title in Japan. The game puts players in command of a railway company. There are no rival companies; the player controls the only one in the city and the game is resultingly fairly open-ended. A-Train III is the first game in the series to make use of near-isometric dimetric projection to present the city, similar to Maxis's later SimCity 2000. Wherever the building materials are delivered, they can be taken and used to construct buildings for the city. Can provide extra revenue for a passenger service, but also allowing the city to develop and grow can be seen as a goal in itself. As well as the buildings built by the computer, in response to the materials being present, the player can construct their own buildings, such as ski resorts and hotels, and make profits from them if the conditions are right, and if these areas are populated enough. A.III. Maxis also published A-Train Construction Set with A-Train as a single package in Europe, without the Ocean Software label. The game was tremendously popular in Japan, thus motivating Maxis to license it for US distribution as A-Train, available for DOS, Macintosh and Amiga platforms. The game was the first major failure from Maxis. Computer Gaming World's reviewer stated in 1992 that while he enjoyed the financial and management aspects of A-Train, "many people will miss out on a fine program because of a steeply graded learning curve". The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon #187 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column.